elasticsearch/docs/reference/query-languages/esql/_snippets/functions/mv_slice.md

MV_SLICE [esql-mv_slice]

Syntax

:::{image} ../../../../../images/mv_slice.svg :alt: Embedded :class: text-center :::

Parameters

field

Multivalue expression. If null, the function returns null.

start

Start position. If null, the function returns null. The start argument can be negative. An index of -1 is used to specify the last value in the list.

end

End position(included). Optional; if omitted, the position at start is returned. The end argument can be negative. An index of -1 is used to specify the last value in the list.

Description

Returns a subset of the multivalued field using the start and end index values. This is most useful when reading from a function that emits multivalued columns in a known order like SPLIT or MV_SORT.

The order that multivalued fields are read from underlying storage is not guaranteed. It is frequently ascending, but don’t rely on that.

Supported types

field	start	end	result
boolean	integer	integer	boolean
cartesian_point	integer	integer	cartesian_point
cartesian_shape	integer	integer	cartesian_shape
date	integer	integer	date
date_nanos	integer	integer	date_nanos
double	integer	integer	double
geo_point	integer	integer	geo_point
geo_shape	integer	integer	geo_shape
integer	integer	integer	integer
ip	integer	integer	ip
keyword	integer	integer	keyword
long	integer	integer	long
text	integer	integer	keyword
unsigned_long	integer	integer	unsigned_long
version	integer	integer	version

Examples

row a = [1, 2, 2, 3]
| eval a1 = mv_slice(a, 1), a2 = mv_slice(a, 2, 3)

a:integer	a1:integer	a2:integer
[1, 2, 2, 3]	2	[2, 3]

row a = [1, 2, 2, 3]
| eval a1 = mv_slice(a, -2), a2 = mv_slice(a, -3, -1)

a:integer	a1:integer	a2:integer
[1, 2, 2, 3]	2	[2, 2, 3]